CRAIG CZURY - BIO
CRAIG CZURY (poet, editor, arts advocate) earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Wilkes University, where he was awarded the prestigious Norris Church Mailer Fellowship. Czury is the author of over 20 books of poetry, and his poems have been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian. He was the 2011 Laureate of the Ditët e Naimit International Albanian Poetry Festival in Macedonia, and served from 2010-2012 as Poet Laureate of Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Craig has also been awarded a variety of fellowships to conduct his collaborative “poem fusion” performances and poetry mural projects. Working with AmeriCorps*Writers Corp in Washington DC in the 1990’s, he conducted poetry workshops with inmates at St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital, fifty years after Ezra Pound was imprisoned there. In 1999, through an Americans For The Arts artist exchange fellowship, Czury developed a BBC Radio FOYL poetry performance through the Derry Playhouse, the result of workshops with both the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland. Most recently, his fellowship through the F. Lammot Belin Scholarship for Artists, allowed him to create "docu-poems" from a collage of voices he gathered from interviews he conducted while hitchhiking rural roads during the height of the Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in that region.
Czury has spent a lifetime creating energetic poetry performances and poetry environments around the world - in schools, communities, homeless shelters, prisons, and mental hospitals. He teaches, writes, and plays harmonica in both Europe and the US.
www.craigczury.com
CRAIG CZURY - CURRICULUM VITAE
CRAIG CZURY
Springville, PA, USA | Soncino, CR, ITALY
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) Creative Writing, Wilkes University, June 2008.
MFA Thesis: CLICK - Mix-Genre Poetry, Nonfiction.
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
English language. Poetry. Poetry writing workshops. Poetry as healing.
World poetry literature. Collaborative multi-voice poetry composition & performance. Poetry murals. Community documentary through interviews & writing oral tales.
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
2010-2017 Part-time Lecturer, Albright College, Reading, PA.
1984-2019 The Craig Czury International Poetry Project
Public poetry projects in schools, universities, community centers,
prisons, homeless shelters, women’s, shelters, mental hospitals.
AWARDS
Skenderbeu Prize, International Literary Meetings "Azem Shkreli",
16th Edition. Peja, Kosovo, 2018.
F. Lammot Belin Scholarship for Artists, Waverly PA, USA, 2012.
Ditet E Naimet Laureate, International Albanian Poetry Festival.
Tetovo, Macedonia, 2011.
Poet Laureate of Berks County, Reading PA, USA, 2010-12.
Key to the City of Scranton, Scranton PA, USA, 1993.
First Book Award, Montana Arts Council, Missoula MT, USA 1980.
INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVALS
2018 International Literary Meetings “Azem Shkreli”. Peja, Kosovë.
2016 Festival Internazionale di Poesia Virgilio. Mantova, Italy.
2016 "La Palabra En El Mundo", Festival Internazionale di Poesia, X Edizione,
Venice, Italy.
2014 Universidad Arturo Prat de Estado de Chile, Festival and Book Launch for
“So Far…So Close: Contemporary Writers of Tarapacá and
Pennsylvania”. Iquique, Chile.
2013 P.E.N. International. Istanbul, Turkey.
2012 International Poetry Festival. Rosario, Argentina.
2012 International Poetry Festival V.I.P. “Sarajevo Winter”.
Sarajevo & Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovena.
2011 Poetry Festival “Ditët E Naimet 2011” Laureate and Honorary Member.
Tetova, Macedonia.
2006 Poetry Festival “Ditët E Naimet 2006”. Tetova, Macedonia.
2005 Ovid International Poetry Festival. Bucharest, Romania.
2004 Literature Live Festival, International P.E.N. Zagreb, Croatia.
2004 Poetry Festival “Ditët E Naimet 2004”. Tetova, Macedonia.
2004 International Poetry Festival of Medellín. Medellín & Bogata, Colombia.
2003 Rosario International Poetry Festival. Rosario, Argentina.
2003 Junin Literary Festival. Junin, Argentina.
1999-2004 Poetry Autumn Festivals, International P.E.N. Druskininkai, Lithuania.
1999 Poetry Spring International Poetry Festival, Lithuanian Writers Union.
Vilnius, Lithuania.
1998 Gerard Manley Hopkins Poetry Festival. Monesterevan, Ireland.
1988-2000 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Festival. New Jersey, USA.
SMALL SAMPLING OF UNIVERSITY READINGS, LECTURES, WORKSHOPS
2018 State University of Tetova, Department of Albanian Language and Literature.
Tetovë, Republika e Maqedonisë (Macedonia). With Albanian PEN Center.
2018 University of Tirana, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Department of English
Language & Literature. Tiranë, Shqipëri (Albania). With Albanian PEN Center.
2018 University "Fan S. Noli”. Korçë, Shqipëri (Albania). With Albanian PEN Center.
2016 British Council, Milano, Italia: Teachers' Development Workshop and
Poetry Reading. Milano, Italy.
2016 St. Bonaventure Univ., Poetry Reading, English Department. Olean, NY.
2016 Pennsylvania Writers Conference: Multi-Media Poetry Performance.
Wilkes University. Wilkes-Barre, PA.
2015 Pennsylvania College English Association: Conference Panelist and
Presenter. University of Scranton, Scranton, PA.
2014 Fracking PA: Documentary Practice and Environmental Activism,
collaborative poetry with photographs and panel talk / poetry reading.
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s, MD.
2013 Critical Pedagogy & Creative Writing Workshop, Poem Fusion Lecture
& Demonstration. Manhattanville College, Manhattanville, N.Y.
2010 University of Montana Western, Guest Lecturer. Dillon, MT.
2010 EAPSU (English Association for Pennsylvania State Universities)
Conference. Lock Haven University, Loch Haven, PA.
2009 Montana Tech of the University of Montana, National Summit of
Mining Communities, Keynote Speaker. Butte, MT.
2009 University of Montana Western, Guest Lecturer. Dillon, MT.
2005-10 Kutztown University, Guest Lecturer, English Professional Writing
Program. Kutztown, PA.
2005 Eminescu National College, Visiting Poet. Bucharest, Romania.
1999 Univ. of Vilnius, Dept. English Philology Poem Fusion. Vilnius, Lithuania.
SMALL SAMPLING OF POETRY PROJECTS IN SCHOOLS & COMMUNITIES
2016-2019 Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Galileo Galilei, Poem Fusion Project,
Special Project Coordinator, Crema, CR, Italy
2008-2017 The Maret School, Poet-In-Residence, Lower, Middle & Upper Schools.
Washington, DC.
2007-2010 Cultural Alliance of York, Poet-In-Residence, Children’s Home of York,
York County Prison. York, PA.
2004-2005 Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Teaching. Poetry Consultant,
Millersville University. Millersville, Pa.
2004 Carcel Bellavista (prison). Medellín, Colombia.
2002-2003 Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, consultant.
1999 The Playhouse, Poet-In-Residence, Derry, Northern Ireland.
Project with Americans for the Arts, broadcast on BBC Radio.
1999-2004 Altigimimo High School, Visiting Poet. Druskininkai, Lithuania.
1999 Pushkinskaya 10, Poem Fusion Workshop, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1998-2002 National Endowment for the Arts, Berks Poem Fusion Project,
through Berks Arts Council, Community Poem Fusion Documentary,
Poem Fusions at schools, afterschool programs, homeless shelters,
mental hospitals, prisons, parks, community centers. Berks Co., PA.
1998-2004 Berks Poetry Project, Curator, Poem Fusion workshops at Berks Co.
Juvenile Detention Center, Reading Emergency Shelter. Reading, PA.
1997-2000 Police Athletic League of Reading PA~ Mentoring & the Arts Project.
1996-2000 Arlington Humanities Council, Visiting Poet to Schools, Arlington,VA
1995-1996 AmeriCorps*WritersCorps Project. Washington, D.C.
1995-2002 New Jersey Council on the Arts, Arts-In-Education rostered artist.
1991-1993 Kutztown University, Academic Alliance and Project Adelante,
K.U. Dept. of Education and Allentown School District.
1993-2007 Very Special Arts Delaware - rostered artist. Wilmington, DE.
1993-2011 Capitol School District, Poet-In-Residence, Dover, DE.
1995-1996 Berks Arts Council, Young Authors Festival (coordinator) workshop
for teachers, Reading, PA.
1988-1991 Susquehanna Univ., Summer Writers Conference, Selinsgrove, PA.
1993-2011 Tower Hill School, Poetry Residency, Wilmington, DE.
1988-2007 Delaware Division on the Arts, Arts-In-Education rostered artist.
1988-2000 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, poetry consultant, N.J. schools.
1989-1990 New Jersey Council for the Arts, Arts-In-Education rostered artist.
1988-2002 N.E. Intermediate Unit #19, Living Arts Program, Visiting Poet, PA.
1984-2015 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Arts-In-Education roster artist.
